How a teacher greets students, takes care of logistics, and begins his or her lessons is CRUCIAL! During this observation, focus on how class begins. Where is your CTbefore class begins? What is he or she doing? Using the clock on the wall, determine when your CT establishes order and begins class. How did she/he start their lesson? How is homework from the previous night reviewed/collected/assessed? How does your CT engage students during the opening of the lesson?
At the beginning of class I saw my middle school CT out in the hallway making sure students were actually getting to class. She greeted some students as they walked in the door, but she was more concerned with them getting to their seats. As soon as the bell rang, she told students she was going to be moving their seats today, which was met with resistance and resentment from some of the students. It took her almost 10 minutes to get everyone rearranged in their seats because she had to yell at them to stop talking and yell at some other students for being disrespectful and not listening to her. The lesson was then started 10 minutes into class with her assigning the students a do now. Some of them worked on it, and some continued to talk. A lot of time seemed to be wasted by the students talking and her yelling at the students to stop talking. There was no homework to review, and after the do now she jumped right into a Powerpoint on the parts of a microscope. Some students were interested, but many of them looked bored and acted out. This class is her one ESL class this year, and she seems to get frustrated more easily with this class than her other classes I have observed because it's hard to have such a large class of students that are all over the spectrum of not understanding English (and some are illiterate in Spanish as well). I think she has a hard time engaging them because there are many students who seem genuinely interested but there are also many students who are not (or aren't understanding the material) and act out as a result. I don't think the class is that bad as a whole, I think she just needs to find a different approach for dealing with their behavior other than just yelling at them.
At the beginning of class I saw my middle school CT out in the hallway making sure students were actually getting to class. She greeted some students as they walked in the door, but she was more concerned with them getting to their seats. As soon as the bell rang, she told students she was going to be moving their seats today, which was met with resistance and resentment from some of the students. It took her almost 10 minutes to get everyone rearranged in their seats because she had to yell at them to stop talking and yell at some other students for being disrespectful and not listening to her. The lesson was then started 10 minutes into class with her assigning the students a do now. Some of them worked on it, and some continued to talk. A lot of time seemed to be wasted by the students talking and her yelling at the students to stop talking. There was no homework to review, and after the do now she jumped right into a Powerpoint on the parts of a microscope. Some students were interested, but many of them looked bored and acted out. This class is her one ESL class this year, and she seems to get frustrated more easily with this class than her other classes I have observed because it's hard to have such a large class of students that are all over the spectrum of not understanding English (and some are illiterate in Spanish as well). I think she has a hard time engaging them because there are many students who seem genuinely interested but there are also many students who are not (or aren't understanding the material) and act out as a result. I don't think the class is that bad as a whole, I think she just needs to find a different approach for dealing with their behavior other than just yelling at them.